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The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: The Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb - By The People Who Were There
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite History & Biography (2025)From the New York Times bestselling author of When the Sea Came Alive and The Only Plane in the Sky, a sweeping and comprehensive oral history of the atomic bomb’s creation and deployment, marking the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
April 12, 1945. Less than three months into his vice presidency, Harry Truman is catapulted into the Oval Office following the sudden death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. As he recites the oath, he learns a chilling secret known only to a select the United States is on the verge of deploying a weapon of unimaginable power. This weapon could end the war but also herald a new age of global fear and uncertainty.
Drawing from over twenty-five oral history archives across the US, Japan, and Europe, Graff has masterfully blended the memories and perspectives from key figures like Harry Truman and J. Robert Oppenheimer, the crews of the B-29 bombers, Enola Gay and Bock’s Car, and the haunting stories of those at ground zero in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including the experiences of the hibakusha—the “bomb-affected people”—and the rescuers who bravely faced the devastation.
Enriched by memoirs, diaries, letters, official documents, and news reports, this is an immersive and deeply human account of the then-secret Manhattan Project through the end of World War II and the dawning of the Cold War, capturing the scientific breakthroughs, military decisions, and profound ethical dilemmas that emerged from using nuclear weapons.
A testament to human ingenuity and resilience, Destroyer of Worlds explores the complex legacy of the atomic bomb, offering a vivid, multi-dimensional view of events that reshaped the world. It is an essential read for anyone looking to grasp the full impact of this critical moment in history and the enduring questions it raises about wielding such destructive power.
April 12, 1945. Less than three months into his vice presidency, Harry Truman is catapulted into the Oval Office following the sudden death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. As he recites the oath, he learns a chilling secret known only to a select the United States is on the verge of deploying a weapon of unimaginable power. This weapon could end the war but also herald a new age of global fear and uncertainty.
Drawing from over twenty-five oral history archives across the US, Japan, and Europe, Graff has masterfully blended the memories and perspectives from key figures like Harry Truman and J. Robert Oppenheimer, the crews of the B-29 bombers, Enola Gay and Bock’s Car, and the haunting stories of those at ground zero in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including the experiences of the hibakusha—the “bomb-affected people”—and the rescuers who bravely faced the devastation.
Enriched by memoirs, diaries, letters, official documents, and news reports, this is an immersive and deeply human account of the then-secret Manhattan Project through the end of World War II and the dawning of the Cold War, capturing the scientific breakthroughs, military decisions, and profound ethical dilemmas that emerged from using nuclear weapons.
A testament to human ingenuity and resilience, Destroyer of Worlds explores the complex legacy of the atomic bomb, offering a vivid, multi-dimensional view of events that reshaped the world. It is an essential read for anyone looking to grasp the full impact of this critical moment in history and the enduring questions it raises about wielding such destructive power.
608 pages, Hardcover
First published August 5, 2025
619 people are currently reading
14287 people want to read
About the author
Garrett M. Graff
22 books847 followersGarrett M. Graff, a distinguished magazine journalist and historian, has spent more than a dozen years covering politics, technology, and national security. He’s written for publications from WIRED to Bloomberg BusinessWeek to the New York Times, and served as the editor of two of Washington’s most prestigious magazines, Washingtonian and POLITICO Magazine, which he helped lead to its first National Magazine Award, the industry’s highest honor.
Graff is the author of multiple books, including "The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House," which examined the role of technology in the 2008 presidential race, and "The Threat Matrix: The FBI At War," which traces the history of the FBI’s counterterrorism efforts. His next book, "Raven Rock," about the government’s Cold War Doomsday plans, will be published in May 2017, and he's currently on an oral history of September 11th, based on his POLITICO Magazine article, "We're The Only Plane in the Sky."
His online career began with his time as Governor Howard Dean’s first webmaster, and in 2005, he was the first blogger accredited to cover a White House press briefing. Today, he serves as the executive director of the Aspen Institute’s cybersecurity and technology program.
Graff is the author of multiple books, including "The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House," which examined the role of technology in the 2008 presidential race, and "The Threat Matrix: The FBI At War," which traces the history of the FBI’s counterterrorism efforts. His next book, "Raven Rock," about the government’s Cold War Doomsday plans, will be published in May 2017, and he's currently on an oral history of September 11th, based on his POLITICO Magazine article, "We're The Only Plane in the Sky."
His online career began with his time as Governor Howard Dean’s first webmaster, and in 2005, he was the first blogger accredited to cover a White House press briefing. Today, he serves as the executive director of the Aspen Institute’s cybersecurity and technology program.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 251 reviews
September 5, 2025
In 2023, we all watched the movie, "Oppenheimer," and were reminded of how the world was forever changed in August 1945 when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now the truly brilliant journalist and historian Garrett Graff has given us what I believe is the definitive oral history of the creation and use of the weapons. And it is riveting. From the European scientists converging on the United States in the 1930s, often escaping Nazi Germany's "race laws," to the flight crews leaving Tinian Island in the Pacific Ocean in August 1945 with the bombs "Fat Man" and "Little Boy" aboard their planes, the book is both comprehensive and unputdownable. Here are the voices of the Americans and the Japanese, the workers in Oak Ridge and Hanford and Los Alamos, and the victims who survived the cataclysmic explosions. Graff's book is a breathtaking accomplishment -- and a reminder that we must never take our eyes off the Doomsday Clock.
August 15, 2025
This oral history was fascinating. It started with the discovery of the atom and culminated in the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s a combination of genius, ingenuity, bravery and horror.
Creating the ultimate weapon of mass destruction was probably one of the biggest secret projects in history. We hear the words of the brilliant scientists who developed the theories. Ironically, many of them were brought together in one place by the antisemitic Nazi policies. The military personnel of all ranks had to find a way to deliver the bombs. Many of them having no idea what the project was. The planes had to be invented and the bombs tested. A decision had to weighed - whether potentially shortening the war justified use of the bombs. Finally, there are the gut wrenching accounts of the people (most of them Japanese, but some pows as well) who survived the bombing, at least until radiation sickness killed them.
This book is really terrific.
Creating the ultimate weapon of mass destruction was probably one of the biggest secret projects in history. We hear the words of the brilliant scientists who developed the theories. Ironically, many of them were brought together in one place by the antisemitic Nazi policies. The military personnel of all ranks had to find a way to deliver the bombs. Many of them having no idea what the project was. The planes had to be invented and the bombs tested. A decision had to weighed - whether potentially shortening the war justified use of the bombs. Finally, there are the gut wrenching accounts of the people (most of them Japanese, but some pows as well) who survived the bombing, at least until radiation sickness killed them.
This book is really terrific.
October 11, 2025
Compelling, engaging, and thorough, this oral history isn’t afraid to be as epic in scale as the part of history it is covering. There is a lot of the mundane in here, from deep-in-the-weeds science to minutia about construction work and contractors, but it never once lost my attention. The unleashing of the atomic bombs is not a simple story, and it deserves a sense of grandeur capture the devastation. That means realizing how it is a bunch of mundane experiences and information from tens of thousands of people that culminated in a world-changing event. These details add to one another, increasing the looming inevitability of terrible destruction. The unleashing of the bombs is told with on-the-ground reports from both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, reports of devastation and heartbreak and absolute horror, and these are contrasted with the simultaneous celebrations of the Americans and other allies, and this framing feels the only fitting way to attempt to contain the whole story. This book is incredibly well-researched, extensive and detailed but consistently entertaining and engaging, and helps locate and preserve a critical moment of history from all possible angles. This is, for better or worse, a very human story, and that is what shines through, not some dry history. It is brutal and honest and evocative, and it leaves you wondering how we can look at the state of international warfare 70 years later and consider it progress.
(Rounded from 4.5)
(Rounded from 4.5)
July 16, 2025
This is an objectively great book, but you do need to be willing to read a lotttt of science. I struggled through some of this, but am so glad I read it.
Want to read
July 9, 2025Cannot tell you how fast I preordered this book. Every book/oral history by Graff has been a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for me.
January 17, 2026
The Devil Reached Toward the Sky is the book that finally made the Manhattan Project accessible to me— a realtime sequence of decisions made by smart yet fallible people under desperate circumstances. My interest in this topic began a few years back while visiting my son at the University of Chicago. As part of the campus tour, I saw the sites where the first controlled nuclear reaction took place. Since then, I have tried reading earlier accounts of the project, including the one by Rhodes, but none quite held my attention until this play by play narrative arrived at my doorstep. What sets this book apart is its reliance on actual quoted statements and bona fide records, allowing the story to unfold as if one were transported back in time and witnessing events firsthand.
From Theory to War
Ernest Rutherford, writing in 1904: “If it were ever found possible to control at will the rate of disintegration of the radio-elements, an enormous amount of energy could be obtained from a small quantity of matter”.
The book provides an excellent grounding of the science before plunging into details. Atomic fission is the splitting of an atom’s nucleus. Uranium-235 is the rare isotope that readily splits and releases energy, while Uranium-238 is far more common and does not. Plutonium-239 is created when Uranium -238 absorbs neutrons in a reactor, and it too can be made to split. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor became the inflection point that drew the United States into the war and accelerated the pursuit of bomb development. Parallel efforts to build the bomb through uranium separation and plutonium production had to be pursued, a reminder of how uncertain the outcome once was.
Secrecy, and Scale
Enrico Fermi: “ The reaction is self-sustaining”.
One of the most compelling sections of the book covers the Chicago Pile and how it was planned, assembled, and tested beneath the stands of Stagg Field. The use of innocuous names : Met Lab, Manhattan Project etc, highlights how secrecy operated in plain sight. The story progresses from elite universities to Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Los Alamos, New Mexico, and industrially to nylon manufacturers adapting their
skillsets and building nuclear reactors. Companies like DuPont, Union Carbide, Eastman Kodak, Westinghouse, and others were pulled into an effort whose true purpose most workers never knew.
A remarkable cast of Characters
Excerpt from Truman’s speech, a response to the deployment of the bomb: ” But the greatest marvel is not the size of the enterprise, its secrecy, nor its cost, but the achievement of scientific brains in putting together infinitely complex pieces of knowledge held by many men in different fields of science into a workable plan. And hardly less marvelous has been the capacity of industry to design, and of labor to operate, the machines and methods to do things never done before, so that the brain child of many minds came forth in physical shape and performed as it was supposed to do. What has been done is the greatest achievement of organized science in history. It was done under high pressure and without failure”.
Oppenheimer emerged as a visionary leader, eventually appointed director of Project Y at Los Alamos. His earlier work with Max Born struck a personal note for me — Born was also my grandfather’s doctoral advisor in the 1930s. Vannevar Bush played a central coordinating role in the Manhattan Project, helping organize scientific research, secure government backing, and drive the effort forward at a critical moment. General Leslie Groves, with his strict sense of rank and authority, forms an unlikely but extraordinarily productive partnership with Oppenheimer, perhaps one of the most effective collaborations in U.S. government history. Their clashes over secrecy versus openness with Groves favoring compartmentalization, and Oppenheimer insisting that science requires shared knowledge, set a precedent still relevant today.
Los Alamos
J. Robert Oppenheimer reflecting on the monumental impact of the atomic bomb: “If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the name of Los Alamos.”
Los Alamos was a place that stood out for its innovation but marked by uncertainty. Scientists did not know how fast neutrons exited an atom, how plutonium would behave, or whether the bomb would even work. The plutonium problem in particular forced a radical shift to implosion design, bringing figures like Johnny von Neumann into the picture with brilliant concepts such as explosive lenses. Xenon poisoning nearly derailed the reactors until engineers learned to overwhelm it by producing excess neutrons. The sheer number of unknowns and how much was solved in such a short time is mind boggling.
This book does not shy away from describing the human and environmental cost. Farms and homes were seized, Indigenous communities were displaced, and entire regions were permanently altered. DuPont became so reviled in some areas that people refused to buy its products for years. The lands appropriated during World War II remain dangerously contaminated, with cleanup costs estimated in the hundreds of billions, and much of it will never be returned to public use.
From Test to Deployment
Robert Oppenheimer, Quoting from the Gita: “ Now I have become death, the destroyer of the worlds”.
The final sections move briskly toward inevitability. The Trinity test is described through the reactions of those who witnessed it: “God has spoken,” one observer said, while Oppenheimer recalled a line from the Bhagavad Gita. The political backdrop was also shifting rapidly: Roosevelt dies, Truman assumes the presidency, and Germany falls, all attention now turning fully to Japan. Firebombing has already devastated cities, and the belief that Japan would not surrender without overwhelming force drives the decision to proceed with deploying the atom bomb.
The logistics of deployment are detailed with precision: the B-29s, the accompanying weather planes, the photo and instrument aircraft, and the final assembly happening on Tinian. The USS Indianapolis delivers key bomb components and is sunk shortly afterward. On August 6, 1945, Enola Gay, named after the pilot’s mother, drops Little Boy. The pilot’s skillful, sharp exit turn to minimize the impact of the shockwave, and the release of energy equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT, marks the moment when theory became a catastrophic reality. The utter devastation, and the terrible human loss and suffering unleashed, are conveyed through quoted, harrowing accounts from survivors. Three days later, the plutonium bomb Fat Man is dropped on Nagasaki. Japan surrenders, and the most horrific war in history is finally over.
This is historical nonfiction at its best—meticulous, very readable, and grounded in verifiable detail. The Devil Reached Toward the Sky succeeds not just in explaining how the bomb was built, but in showing how science, management, politics, and morality collide in real time. It left me with a clearer understanding of this monumental achievement, and a deep concern and sadness for its consequence on humanity. Few books manage to do both so effectively.
From Theory to War
Ernest Rutherford, writing in 1904: “If it were ever found possible to control at will the rate of disintegration of the radio-elements, an enormous amount of energy could be obtained from a small quantity of matter”.
The book provides an excellent grounding of the science before plunging into details. Atomic fission is the splitting of an atom’s nucleus. Uranium-235 is the rare isotope that readily splits and releases energy, while Uranium-238 is far more common and does not. Plutonium-239 is created when Uranium -238 absorbs neutrons in a reactor, and it too can be made to split. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor became the inflection point that drew the United States into the war and accelerated the pursuit of bomb development. Parallel efforts to build the bomb through uranium separation and plutonium production had to be pursued, a reminder of how uncertain the outcome once was.
Secrecy, and Scale
Enrico Fermi: “ The reaction is self-sustaining”.
One of the most compelling sections of the book covers the Chicago Pile and how it was planned, assembled, and tested beneath the stands of Stagg Field. The use of innocuous names : Met Lab, Manhattan Project etc, highlights how secrecy operated in plain sight. The story progresses from elite universities to Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Los Alamos, New Mexico, and industrially to nylon manufacturers adapting their
skillsets and building nuclear reactors. Companies like DuPont, Union Carbide, Eastman Kodak, Westinghouse, and others were pulled into an effort whose true purpose most workers never knew.
A remarkable cast of Characters
Excerpt from Truman’s speech, a response to the deployment of the bomb: ” But the greatest marvel is not the size of the enterprise, its secrecy, nor its cost, but the achievement of scientific brains in putting together infinitely complex pieces of knowledge held by many men in different fields of science into a workable plan. And hardly less marvelous has been the capacity of industry to design, and of labor to operate, the machines and methods to do things never done before, so that the brain child of many minds came forth in physical shape and performed as it was supposed to do. What has been done is the greatest achievement of organized science in history. It was done under high pressure and without failure”.
Oppenheimer emerged as a visionary leader, eventually appointed director of Project Y at Los Alamos. His earlier work with Max Born struck a personal note for me — Born was also my grandfather’s doctoral advisor in the 1930s. Vannevar Bush played a central coordinating role in the Manhattan Project, helping organize scientific research, secure government backing, and drive the effort forward at a critical moment. General Leslie Groves, with his strict sense of rank and authority, forms an unlikely but extraordinarily productive partnership with Oppenheimer, perhaps one of the most effective collaborations in U.S. government history. Their clashes over secrecy versus openness with Groves favoring compartmentalization, and Oppenheimer insisting that science requires shared knowledge, set a precedent still relevant today.
Los Alamos
J. Robert Oppenheimer reflecting on the monumental impact of the atomic bomb: “If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the name of Los Alamos.”
Los Alamos was a place that stood out for its innovation but marked by uncertainty. Scientists did not know how fast neutrons exited an atom, how plutonium would behave, or whether the bomb would even work. The plutonium problem in particular forced a radical shift to implosion design, bringing figures like Johnny von Neumann into the picture with brilliant concepts such as explosive lenses. Xenon poisoning nearly derailed the reactors until engineers learned to overwhelm it by producing excess neutrons. The sheer number of unknowns and how much was solved in such a short time is mind boggling.
This book does not shy away from describing the human and environmental cost. Farms and homes were seized, Indigenous communities were displaced, and entire regions were permanently altered. DuPont became so reviled in some areas that people refused to buy its products for years. The lands appropriated during World War II remain dangerously contaminated, with cleanup costs estimated in the hundreds of billions, and much of it will never be returned to public use.
From Test to Deployment
Robert Oppenheimer, Quoting from the Gita: “ Now I have become death, the destroyer of the worlds”.
The final sections move briskly toward inevitability. The Trinity test is described through the reactions of those who witnessed it: “God has spoken,” one observer said, while Oppenheimer recalled a line from the Bhagavad Gita. The political backdrop was also shifting rapidly: Roosevelt dies, Truman assumes the presidency, and Germany falls, all attention now turning fully to Japan. Firebombing has already devastated cities, and the belief that Japan would not surrender without overwhelming force drives the decision to proceed with deploying the atom bomb.
The logistics of deployment are detailed with precision: the B-29s, the accompanying weather planes, the photo and instrument aircraft, and the final assembly happening on Tinian. The USS Indianapolis delivers key bomb components and is sunk shortly afterward. On August 6, 1945, Enola Gay, named after the pilot’s mother, drops Little Boy. The pilot’s skillful, sharp exit turn to minimize the impact of the shockwave, and the release of energy equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT, marks the moment when theory became a catastrophic reality. The utter devastation, and the terrible human loss and suffering unleashed, are conveyed through quoted, harrowing accounts from survivors. Three days later, the plutonium bomb Fat Man is dropped on Nagasaki. Japan surrenders, and the most horrific war in history is finally over.
This is historical nonfiction at its best—meticulous, very readable, and grounded in verifiable detail. The Devil Reached Toward the Sky succeeds not just in explaining how the bomb was built, but in showing how science, management, politics, and morality collide in real time. It left me with a clearer understanding of this monumental achievement, and a deep concern and sadness for its consequence on humanity. Few books manage to do both so effectively.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 27, 2026
Fascinating oral history, telling the story not only of how the bombs were made but how the factories that made them came to be, the scientists who were involved got there, and the planes that dropped them were developed. I loved all the background stuff about choosing, clearing, and building up the sites of Los Alamos, Hanford, and Oak Ridge, as well as the images of the workers toiling away at something they knew was part of the war effort but were kept in the dark about its ultimate purpose.
I did wish there had been a little more about the strategizing about whether to drop these bombs on cities, but I appreciated--and may never forget--the descriptions from survivors of their own horror and pain. (It blows my mind that there were people who survived Hiroshima and then went to Nagasaki and survived there, too.)
The book was a little overly long for my taste. Surprisingly, given that I'm a science writer, I thought the least engaging sections were about the development of the science itself behind fission and atomic weaponry.
The audiobook, narrated by a full cast, was wonderful.
I did wish there had been a little more about the strategizing about whether to drop these bombs on cities, but I appreciated--and may never forget--the descriptions from survivors of their own horror and pain. (It blows my mind that there were people who survived Hiroshima and then went to Nagasaki and survived there, too.)
The book was a little overly long for my taste. Surprisingly, given that I'm a science writer, I thought the least engaging sections were about the development of the science itself behind fission and atomic weaponry.
The audiobook, narrated by a full cast, was wonderful.
January 20, 2026
This is quite probably the single greatest work of history I have ever read, as told from those who lived it and from all sides of the story. God help us if humanity chooses to use such horrific weapons ever again.
September 19, 2025
5 stars.
Graff has become an auto-read author for me. This is the first oral history I have read from him, and I really enjoyed it. What I appreciated about this topic, was all of the pieces it filled in. The genesis of the project, to all of the locations in the U.S. that were not Los Alamos that assisted in the development of the bomb. Talk about the B-29 and the WASPs was very much up my alley.
Graff was able to scaffold the narrative in a way that created a lot of tension, even when you knew the outcome. What I think is the most noteworthy about this piece is the focus on the voices of those in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it was extremely emotional and a perspective that is often ignored when we talk about the bomb. Additionally, the exploration on the ways in which the U.S. downplayed or full on denied on ground accounts of post-bombing deaths and prolonged sickness was very timely in our current political and global climate.
If you enjoyed Oppenheimer, I would recommend this.
Graff has become an auto-read author for me. This is the first oral history I have read from him, and I really enjoyed it. What I appreciated about this topic, was all of the pieces it filled in. The genesis of the project, to all of the locations in the U.S. that were not Los Alamos that assisted in the development of the bomb. Talk about the B-29 and the WASPs was very much up my alley.
Graff was able to scaffold the narrative in a way that created a lot of tension, even when you knew the outcome. What I think is the most noteworthy about this piece is the focus on the voices of those in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it was extremely emotional and a perspective that is often ignored when we talk about the bomb. Additionally, the exploration on the ways in which the U.S. downplayed or full on denied on ground accounts of post-bombing deaths and prolonged sickness was very timely in our current political and global climate.
If you enjoyed Oppenheimer, I would recommend this.
August 11, 2025
Garrett Graff’s books always create an incredible narrative through firsthand quotes and in depth research. And having already loved reading about the Manhattan Project, I knew this one would be for me. It was 500 pages and didn’t feel like a slog at all, I flew through it for as dense and long as it was. It goes through every bit of the project and the main characters surrounding it, and the epilogue talking about the effect of the fallout on Japan was harrowing. Just a phenomenal read.
September 29, 2025
I pity those who feel that US’ use of the bomb was warranted
December 18, 2025
Big fan of how Garrett Graff does these. I wish the atomic bomb was never invented, but it was pretty wild to read how it all came together. How quickly and all the brains that came together to build it.
August 20, 2025
Objectively this is a 5 star book. Sooo much research to put this into an oral history format.
But I rate books subjectively! And there was a lotttt of science and the like that didn’t keep my attention. I listened to this on audio and it was a full cast and so well done.
But I rate books subjectively! And there was a lotttt of science and the like that didn’t keep my attention. I listened to this on audio and it was a full cast and so well done.
February 12, 2026
This is a perfectly titled book.
The account of the men and women in this book is staggering. It made me appreciate that there is something about war that brings out the brilliance, bravery, and resilience of humans.
Then the book forces you to remember what war really is. Remember that they had to find a way to summon the Devil to put an end to it, and he did what he always does. Led us to Hell.
The account of the men and women in this book is staggering. It made me appreciate that there is something about war that brings out the brilliance, bravery, and resilience of humans.
Then the book forces you to remember what war really is. Remember that they had to find a way to summon the Devil to put an end to it, and he did what he always does. Led us to Hell.
July 22, 2025
Garrett M. Graff is possibly the greatest oral historian of our time. In The Devil Reaches Toward the Sky, he pulls off an astonishing feat by placing the reader right in the midst of some of the greatest physicists in history as they race to build a monstrosity. It’s an engaging read, full of fascinating anecdotes. A must-read for fans of both science and history. Highly recommended.
I received an advance copy of this book from Avid Reader Press/NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received an advance copy of this book from Avid Reader Press/NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
August 14, 2025
while it’s so necessary to hear from the important people in history , garrett graff packs a punch in all his books with the less known through out ❣️
August 13, 2025
This Week on History Happy Hour (080125): As we approach the 80th anniversary of the atomic bomb, HHH alum Garrett M. Graff has come out with a new oral history of the development of the bomb. “Chris and Rick will explore with him the breakthroughs and the breakneck pace of atomic development in the years leading up to 1945, what it was like inside the bombers carrying Little Boy and Fat Man and finally to ground zero at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Garrett M. Graff is a journalist, historian, producer, and speaker. He taught at Georgetown University for seven years, including courses on journalism and technology, and his writing and commentary has appeared in publications like the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, New York, Bloomberg. He appeared on History Happy Hour to talk about his D-Day Oral History, When the Sea came Alive. His book Watergate: A New History was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He is also the author of The Only Plane in the Sky, an oral history of 9/11. He lives in Montpelier, Vermont.”
December 22, 2025
I'm not sure what I can say about a book as comprehensive as this one. It's uneven, but how could it not be? It's a compilation of many, many voices -- the men and women who conceived of nuclear reactions, worked to figure out how to construct a bomb, wha daily life was like at Los Alamos and Oak Ridge, how to master the flight requirements that would be needed to deliver it, the men who flew the planes, and the Japanese survivors. Sometimes the story lagged, but again, it had to.
What struck me most: the thoughts and experiences of the men selected to deliver the bombs; the harrowing descriptions of the effects of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the efforts the American government took to hide the deadly effects of radiation, admitting the bombs killed hundreds of thousands of people but asserting that the claims of radiation sickness were all propaganda, and anyway, the Japanese started it.
For anyone who is curious about one particular matter: Graff does not address the question about whether the use of the bombs was militarily justifiable or moral. They're reasonable questions to ask, of course, but Graff -- wisely, I think -- chose to leave them for other works.
What struck me most: the thoughts and experiences of the men selected to deliver the bombs; the harrowing descriptions of the effects of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the efforts the American government took to hide the deadly effects of radiation, admitting the bombs killed hundreds of thousands of people but asserting that the claims of radiation sickness were all propaganda, and anyway, the Japanese started it.
For anyone who is curious about one particular matter: Graff does not address the question about whether the use of the bombs was militarily justifiable or moral. They're reasonable questions to ask, of course, but Graff -- wisely, I think -- chose to leave them for other works.
August 24, 2025
Like all of Graff's projects, this is such a magisterial accomplishment that will utterly sweep you away - especially when read as a full-cast audiobook.
In any historical project, there's always the question of what to include and what to leave out, and whose voices to prioritize. Graff is dedicated in his work to make sure that the voices on the sidelines are included to the full extent possible - the wives of the scientists, the Black and the Native voices whose stories of displacement and social stratification live in stark contrast to the story of scrappy white determinism that blankets so much of what we hear about the atomic bomb, the women who were trained to fly the new B29's because the male pilots were too scared to do it, and most critically, the first person perspectives of the Japanese civilians who experienced the trauma and devastation of the Tokyo firebombing and the atomic bomb drops. A true historian, Graff does not shy away from or minimize the brutality of the civilian experience, and these chapters are absolutely gut-wrenching to read.
My quibbles are more personal complaints than they are any real scholarly criticism of this work itself. A good 25% of this books is about the science itself - the nuclear physics that actually made the bomb work, and ALLLLL the trial and error that got them to the place of launch day. I can see how this would be interesting to a lot of readers, but it felt so less important to me than the other work Graff was doing in this book. He gave very little to no substantial real estate to exploring the question of the necessity of dropping the bombs in the first place - how the decision to drop the bombs was ultimately made and reflections on whether or not people felt like it was the right call. This, to me, is one of the key turning points around which any discussion of the atomic bomb revolves, and to not explore it in any kind of depth (while also devoting SO MUCH real estate to the physics of the development of the weapons themselves) seems misguided, particularly in our current environment. It's a quintessential embodiment of the Jeff Goldblum meme from Jurassic Park: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
Still, though, what's beautiful about Graff's books (even if they play a little fast and loose with the definition of "oral history") is how accessibly they ask us to bear witness to pivotal moments in American and world history, and how diligently he works to platform the REAL voices on the ground for those moments, not just the official government statements and propaganda. This is history, and historiography, and its best, and sometimes at its worst, but certainly at its most honest.
"The question of morality in warfare is vexing: Is there a moral way to kill someone?"
Probably not, but there is a moral way to write about history, and Graff does that.
In any historical project, there's always the question of what to include and what to leave out, and whose voices to prioritize. Graff is dedicated in his work to make sure that the voices on the sidelines are included to the full extent possible - the wives of the scientists, the Black and the Native voices whose stories of displacement and social stratification live in stark contrast to the story of scrappy white determinism that blankets so much of what we hear about the atomic bomb, the women who were trained to fly the new B29's because the male pilots were too scared to do it, and most critically, the first person perspectives of the Japanese civilians who experienced the trauma and devastation of the Tokyo firebombing and the atomic bomb drops. A true historian, Graff does not shy away from or minimize the brutality of the civilian experience, and these chapters are absolutely gut-wrenching to read.
My quibbles are more personal complaints than they are any real scholarly criticism of this work itself. A good 25% of this books is about the science itself - the nuclear physics that actually made the bomb work, and ALLLLL the trial and error that got them to the place of launch day. I can see how this would be interesting to a lot of readers, but it felt so less important to me than the other work Graff was doing in this book. He gave very little to no substantial real estate to exploring the question of the necessity of dropping the bombs in the first place - how the decision to drop the bombs was ultimately made and reflections on whether or not people felt like it was the right call. This, to me, is one of the key turning points around which any discussion of the atomic bomb revolves, and to not explore it in any kind of depth (while also devoting SO MUCH real estate to the physics of the development of the weapons themselves) seems misguided, particularly in our current environment. It's a quintessential embodiment of the Jeff Goldblum meme from Jurassic Park: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
Still, though, what's beautiful about Graff's books (even if they play a little fast and loose with the definition of "oral history") is how accessibly they ask us to bear witness to pivotal moments in American and world history, and how diligently he works to platform the REAL voices on the ground for those moments, not just the official government statements and propaganda. This is history, and historiography, and its best, and sometimes at its worst, but certainly at its most honest.
"The question of morality in warfare is vexing: Is there a moral way to kill someone?"
Probably not, but there is a moral way to write about history, and Graff does that.
August 23, 2025
This is an absolutely fascinating oral history of the evolution of the atomic bomb [and its aftermath ]. This was my first Garrett M. Graff book, but it most certainly will not be my last.
Starting with the discovery of the atom and ending with the dropping of Fat Man and Little Boy on Nagasaki and Hiroshima [and the aftermath of the bombings ], this extremely well-written book is filled with so many POV's [with narrators for all ] and that is what makes it so interesting. You get to hear first-person accounts from those who were there and wrote about it [the amount of research that went into the book is absolutely mind-boggling ]. From the bomb creators, the scientists [SO. MUCH. SCIENCE. I'll admit I got a little lost there ], and the plane builders [with all the books I have read about this time, I never realized that they had to build a new plane to be able to CARRY the bombs - that was very eye-opening ], to the actual testing of the bomb in Los Alamos [as I was listening to them tell about what happened that night, the scene from the excellent movie "Oppenheimer" played through my mind ], as well as a very up-close journey through what the Japanese went through in the aftermath [it is also very interesting to learn just how many Japanese DID NOT want to end the war even AFTER the first bomb was dropped - I was just flabbergasted at that ], this book gives you a front-row seat to one of the most exciting [science-wise ] AND frightening times in history [the chapters about the bombings and the aftermath will absolutely break you ], and leaves you praying we never have to have a reason [ANY reason, real or manufactured ] to ever do this again. May we never do this again.
Thank you to NetGalley, Garrett M. Graff, and Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Starting with the discovery of the atom and ending with the dropping of Fat Man and Little Boy on Nagasaki and Hiroshima [and the aftermath of the bombings ], this extremely well-written book is filled with so many POV's [with narrators for all ] and that is what makes it so interesting. You get to hear first-person accounts from those who were there and wrote about it [the amount of research that went into the book is absolutely mind-boggling ]. From the bomb creators, the scientists [SO. MUCH. SCIENCE. I'll admit I got a little lost there ], and the plane builders [with all the books I have read about this time, I never realized that they had to build a new plane to be able to CARRY the bombs - that was very eye-opening ], to the actual testing of the bomb in Los Alamos [as I was listening to them tell about what happened that night, the scene from the excellent movie "Oppenheimer" played through my mind ], as well as a very up-close journey through what the Japanese went through in the aftermath [it is also very interesting to learn just how many Japanese DID NOT want to end the war even AFTER the first bomb was dropped - I was just flabbergasted at that ], this book gives you a front-row seat to one of the most exciting [science-wise ] AND frightening times in history [the chapters about the bombings and the aftermath will absolutely break you ], and leaves you praying we never have to have a reason [ANY reason, real or manufactured ] to ever do this again. May we never do this again.
Thank you to NetGalley, Garrett M. Graff, and Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
December 7, 2025
The Devil Reached Toward the Sky is a sweeping and deeply human look at how the atomic bomb came to exist. Garrett Graff pulls together voices from every corner of the story. Scientists. Labourers. Military leaders. Civilians who had no idea what they were helping build. Survivors who lived through the unimaginable. The result is a history that feels alive instead of dusty.
What impressed me most was how Graff builds real tension even though we all know where the story ends. The labs feel cramped and frantic. The wartime factories feel enormous and almost scary in their secrecy. The decision making feels heavy.
The technical details are thick in places, but they matter. They show how unlikely this project was. It took huge leaps of faith, frightening amounts of money, and thousands of people working in the dark. That scale alone is staggering.
The final sections hit the hardest. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not numbers here. They are people whose lives were shattered in ways most of us can barely imagine. Their accounts stay with you. They force you to think about the real cost of ending the war and whether any military victory is ever worth devastation at that level.
This is one of the best WWII books I have read. It is sobering, gripping, and unforgettable.
What impressed me most was how Graff builds real tension even though we all know where the story ends. The labs feel cramped and frantic. The wartime factories feel enormous and almost scary in their secrecy. The decision making feels heavy.
The technical details are thick in places, but they matter. They show how unlikely this project was. It took huge leaps of faith, frightening amounts of money, and thousands of people working in the dark. That scale alone is staggering.
The final sections hit the hardest. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not numbers here. They are people whose lives were shattered in ways most of us can barely imagine. Their accounts stay with you. They force you to think about the real cost of ending the war and whether any military victory is ever worth devastation at that level.
This is one of the best WWII books I have read. It is sobering, gripping, and unforgettable.
February 9, 2026
If you watched Christopher Nolan's cinematic epic 'Oppenheimer' and wanted to know more about the creation of the atomic bomb and the people involved in its development, look no further. This book does an excellent job of piecing together firsthand accounts by dozens of people on various fronts, resulting in a seamless biography of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended the war on the Eastern front. Furthermore, this book does what Nolan's film failed to do by not only acknowledging the destruction, death, and suffering inflicted by the Americans and their allies on innocent Japanese civilians and their racist views of Japanese people, but also presenting the reader with firsthand accounts by survivors of the bombings in Japan and their family members. I greatly appreciate Graff's hard work and dedication to presenting the nuanced story of the war that exists in this book. I'd also highly recommend the audiobook version; it features a full cast of talented narrators, atmospheric music at the start of each section, and a few actual historical recordings of broadcasts by world leaders during this stage in the war.
February 23, 2026
The Devil Reached Towards the Sky is a fantastic telling of the story of the bomb and one told almost entirely by those who were there. From Generals and Presidents to the children who played ball in the street at Los Alamos as their parents worked in guarded labs to the schoolteacher and factory workers of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Graff lets the people speak for themselves. I never knew so much about the nitty-gritty of the development of the atomic age and there are some strong anecdotes that bring home the humanity of all facets of the project (the Arsenic and Old Lace story being maybe the best historical anecdote I've read in a long time).
March 17, 2026
Staggering story of the real people people behind the development and deployment of the first atomic bombs, from the German and Italian Jews who were convinced their former physics colleagues would beat them to building a bomb for the Nazis to the Marines who guarded the bomb in a shack on Tinian island. Graff lets humans tel their own stories, one of incredible ingenuity and simultaneously human suffering that must never be repeated.
March 11, 2026
Starting the book with the physics discoveries that led to the development of the A bomb made it harder to follow at first (at least for me) but by the end, when the bombings are being planned and then occur, I couldn’t stop listening. Graff takes no stand on the morality of using the bomb, but does include oral histories of participants who present all side of the issue and show that the decision to use the bomb was not taken lightly at least.
I am not sure what makes Graff’s 9/11 stand out over his other in my mind, whether it is the narrower focus, or about a subject I have personal memories of, but this book is still remarkable even if not quite at that level.
I am not sure what makes Graff’s 9/11 stand out over his other in my mind, whether it is the narrower focus, or about a subject I have personal memories of, but this book is still remarkable even if not quite at that level.
January 7, 2026
There's always something new and interesting to learn from this period of history. Great when read alongside the Making of the Atomic Bomb by Rhodes. It adds a different layer of human experience to the story.
August 10, 2025
Thank you to Avid Reader Press for the finished copy and to Simon Audio for the audiobook.
I went in knowing very little about the science or history of the atomic bomb — which in hindsight, I’m not sure I recommend lol. For that reason, reading and listening at the same time helped tremendously.
It’s easy to hear “Manhattan Project” and think scientists in New Mexico pushing buttons, but that’s only part of the story. The atomic bomb was a marvel of science, yes, but also American industry. In just three years, they managed to produce not just the uranium and plutonium, but also the facilities to do so, and the facilities needed to create the weapon itself. It’s staggering. And sobering.
The last 50% of the book absolutely captivated me — I finished it in one evening. This section talked about the decision making process (when, where, and whether to drop the bomb), the actual bombing, the human toll… just wow.
The oral history format made it even more powerful. History can feel inevitable in hindsight. Of course the Allies won WWII, of course the US built the first atomic bomb, of course D-Day succeeded. But Garrett’s books always remind me how fragile those outcomes really were. Nothing was foretold and nothing was guaranteed. A different twist of fate, and everything could’ve changed.
It’s a powerful reminder that the people living in those moments had agency, and so do we. Finishing this book, I’m more convinced than ever that atomic weapons belong in the past. As Einstein said, “I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth — rocks”
Audio: As with Garrett’s prior books, the oral history is narrated by a full cast, which makes it so much easier to track who’s speaking. I love doing tandem reads of his books — listening and following along in print — and this one is especially great in that format!
I went in knowing very little about the science or history of the atomic bomb — which in hindsight, I’m not sure I recommend lol. For that reason, reading and listening at the same time helped tremendously.
It’s easy to hear “Manhattan Project” and think scientists in New Mexico pushing buttons, but that’s only part of the story. The atomic bomb was a marvel of science, yes, but also American industry. In just three years, they managed to produce not just the uranium and plutonium, but also the facilities to do so, and the facilities needed to create the weapon itself. It’s staggering. And sobering.
The last 50% of the book absolutely captivated me — I finished it in one evening. This section talked about the decision making process (when, where, and whether to drop the bomb), the actual bombing, the human toll… just wow.
The oral history format made it even more powerful. History can feel inevitable in hindsight. Of course the Allies won WWII, of course the US built the first atomic bomb, of course D-Day succeeded. But Garrett’s books always remind me how fragile those outcomes really were. Nothing was foretold and nothing was guaranteed. A different twist of fate, and everything could’ve changed.
It’s a powerful reminder that the people living in those moments had agency, and so do we. Finishing this book, I’m more convinced than ever that atomic weapons belong in the past. As Einstein said, “I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth — rocks”
Audio: As with Garrett’s prior books, the oral history is narrated by a full cast, which makes it so much easier to track who’s speaking. I love doing tandem reads of his books — listening and following along in print — and this one is especially great in that format!
December 6, 2025
Another excellent stop on my wartime physics obsession of the year. An expansive and comprehensive look at the development, deployment, and impact of the atomic bomb in the words of the people who lived through it.
August 27, 2025
A fascinating history of the formation and unleashing of the atomic bomb. It was a bit science-heavy to start, but the latter half was at the same time captivating and horrifying.
September 10, 2025
The part of this book that dealt with the scientific beginnings of the bomb were way over my head! However, the last two thirds of the book were fascinating.
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